New Technique May Help Scientists Stave Off Coral Reef Collapse

In a bit of biological magic, some tiny, jellyfish-like creatures learned eons ago how to weave seawater into durable, life-sustaining, rocky coral reefs, which provide billions in economic benefits. 

But the magic is fading. In the face of warming, acidifying oceans, coral skeletons are at risk of dissolving. Scientists are racing to develop ways to help stave off collapse. But their efforts are hampered by the difficulty of studying delicate coral polyps in the lab. 

In a first for helping coral polyps respond to these threats, scientists from the University of Florida have recreated the first stage of the coral skeleton creation process in a common, squishy sea anemone. The technique transforms this soft-bodied creature into the perfect lab model for researching coral skeletons and developing ways to bolster coral polyps in a changing climate. 

“The whole ecosystem is dying. You can listen to the death all you want, but what are you going to do to fix it?” said Mark Martindale, Ph.D., director of the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience and supervising researcher on the study. “In order to do that, you need to understand what the problems are. And you need an experimental system to do that. Now we have that system.”

Learn how this New Technique May Help Scientists Stave Off Coral Reef Collapse.